Prevalence and nature of violence against disabled women

Studies have shown that disabled women are twice as likely to experience domestic abuse and are also twice as likely to suffer assault and rape. But not many understand the type of domestic abuse that disabled women face.

Abuse against disabled women takes many forms. It can be taking your assistive equipment (like wheelchair) or medication away. It can be gaslighting, undermining your self-worth and telling the people around you that you are deficient because of your impairment. This includes parents who sterilise their girl children so as not to be bothered with menstruation or possible pregnancy. It includes control over finance and movement.

By way of example, Natasha Hirst shares her experience of domestic abuse as a Deaf woman in this video, which she recorded it for the UN day for Elimination of Violence Against Women as part of BAWSO‘s light a candle event. We would like to thank Natasha for this video.

Barriers faced by disabled women

Disabled women who experience violence face a number of additional barriers to accessing support. As Molly Tonks, a Sisters of Frida volunteer, recently highlighted in her blog on the ‘Istanbul Convention and disabled women,’ ‘Accessing justice, support and protection services is often harder for disabled women due to a lack of access and appropriate support’.

She explains: ‘many police stations and victim shelters/support facilities are not accessible for women with reduced mobility; sign language interpretation is often not provided for women who are hard of hearing, deaf, or deaf-blind; and general information is often unavailable in braille and Easy to Read formats.’

Indeed, this is why the European Disability Forum affirms it is so important to secure ratification.

What difference would the Istanbul Convention make for disabled women?

Molly notes: ‘The implementation of the Istanbul Convention serves to benefit women’s lives in Europe, including disabled women and girls, and alleviate the gendered violence many women and girls face.’

If the UK ratified the Istanbul Convention, it would make the following differences for disabled women and girls, to name a few:

• Access to information: The government would have to ensure survivors have ‘adequate and timely’ information on support services and legal measures in a language (or format) they understand (Articles 19).

• Access to services: The government would have to ensure access to appropriate support services, including specialist support services, shelters, and rape crisis centres (Articles 20, 22, 23, 25).

• Protection from forced abortion and sterialisation: The government would have to ensure that abortion and sterilisation can only be performed with a woman’s consent (Article 39)

• Better research into the prevalence and trends of violence against women, including disabled women (Article 11).

For more examples, see Molly’s blog.

This is why we are campaigning with IC Change for the UK to ratify the Istanbul Convention on violence against women.

Take Action

Sign the petition to ratify the Istanbul Convention to help secure better access to services and justice for disabled women who experience violence.

Support Sisters of Frida.

Sisters of Frida is an experimental collective of disabled women. We want a new way of sharing experiences, mutual support and relationships with different networks. They are a supporting organisation of the IC Change campaign.